Published in the March 16- 29, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Trina Hineser
Trina Hineser
As residents of San Martin an
d the unincorporated area of Santa Clara County, we are all familiar with the rural atmosphere we have chosen to live in. However, does that mean we should be subjected to urban sprawl, or accept the squalor within our community? What does one do when arguably a family’s home, their biggest investment, decreases in value because enforceable county policies are not being more conscientiously implemented to preserve their investment?
Here’s a scenario that may sound or look familiar in San Martin: Multiple renters with 10 to 20 cars at a single-family dwelling; the appearance of trafficking accompanied by rented trailers, illegal dwellings and structures; abandoned vehicles, outhouses and cowboy septic systems; dilapidated greenhouses and junkyards. In one such San Martin neighborhood, you can find all of this in a two to three block radius, where more than 10 homes, mostly not owner occupied, have one or more of these issues happening right now.
Last year, the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance provided its membership a list of Santa Clara County contact names and numbers to report these egregious issues. In an effort to help keep our community standards up, many of our members made calls, sent emails and reported a variety of issues in and around their individual neighborhoods. And yet, the plight persists.
The unincorporated area, especially San Martin, seems to be a target or “profit center” for rental units. If a property is not owner occupied, and there is no upkeep by the property owner, how do neighboring homeowner’s conquer this? Are these rental properties created by design as profit centers? Do the landlord’s create these “ghetto” conditions for their tenants intentionally, or is it mere negligence?
Don’t sit back and think someone else is going to report the problem in your neighborhood. Use the following information to help clean-up our community:
Contact County Roads & Airports at (408) 494-2700: for graffiti on public signs, traffic signals, streetlight or roadway problems, illegal dumping, weeds on easements, requests for signs and pavement management. Email [email protected] or report on-line www.sccgov.org/sites/rda/info/Pages/service.aspx
Contact Code Enforcement at (408) 229-5770: for issues pertaining to businesses, junkyards, parking on lawns, trailers, secondary dwellings, signs, vehicles on private property, graffiti on private property. Report on-line www.sccgov.org/sites/dpd/AboutUs/Enforcement/Pages/Enforcement.aspx
In August the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors adopted a new health element to the county general plan. It states: “The county’s role within the rural areas is greater, with a focus on preserving rural character, natural resources, and allowing only low density, non-urban development.”
The supervisors should be applauded for acknowledging the needed protection of the rural communities. But do you feel San Martin is truly protected?
In San Martin, the impact of housing problems such as substandard general conditions, the lack of neighborhood maintenance and its subsequent decline, can reduce the value of homes, while simultaneously increasing crime and overcrowding.
Presently the county of Santa Clara Planning Office is in the process of refining amendments to the zoning ordinance regulations for secondary dwellings. The current ordinance acknowledges that secondary dwellings are a valuable and relatively affordable form of housing, and are to be relatively unobtrusive on the site. However, they are not to significantly impact adjacent properties, and not to diminish neighborhood character.
If the ordinances are changed will this correct the many violations we see rampant in our community?
SMNA’s mission is to protect San Martin’s rural atmosphere, support positive controlled growth, monitor commercial and industrial growth and encourage new development to be local serving. Join us at our next quarterly community meeting at Andrade Country Meadows in San Martin, at 6 p.m. April 19.
Trina Hineser is the president of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance. She wrote this column for Morgan Hill Life.
